Working Like Dogs

What a week. In the words of Elder Gibbs, "we´re working like dogs." Life in the offices is tranquilo, but sometimes it gets stressful. Especially when I consider that I´m going to be taking on the secretary job almost full time next transfer. And the transfer after that training Sister Jones. Right now with two people on the job, we´re managing to get everything done, but in a few weeks it´s going to be all up to me. We are usually able to leave the offices at four or five to go work in the area. Usually the two jobs don´t interfere with each other, but with transfers coming up next week, things are going to be interesting. If anyone wants to ask specific questions about my drab life in the offices, I´m more than open to answer them, but I think you would rather hear a bit about the adventurous proselyting. Slightly more interesting than Elder Jensen: And the Crooked Three Hole Punch, or Molten Death: Elder Jensen Vs. the Laminator both of which were coincidentally failed title prospects for this email. Out of respect for my readers I chose instead La Villa Vida or, literally translated, the village life.

Villa (pronounced here veesha) is anything but a village. It´s where the majority of the work happens here in Buenos Aires South. The poverty stricken centers of urbanization scattering the central of Buenos Aires. After so many months of writing to you, I don´t think I´ve ever adequately described what proselyting here is like. Things I see every day and will never forget. One minute you’re walking down a beautiful street of cobblestone roads and classical Argentine suburbs, houses every bit as beautiful as the best I´ve ever seen, and literally the next block you are surrounded by destroyed shacks scrapped together out of metal and chapa. Tall and eerie, built one on top of the other like a jungle of shrapnel gnarled and foreboding. Lining the pale dirt roads cluttered with garbage filled ditches and Sanjas. The contrast is disturbing. People who have nothing should never live so close to people who have everything.

As I walk these streets, as I stare down the face of poverty and depression, I realize, sometimes, that the light has been taken from this people. The loss of innocence. The hungry child. The way the garbage burns and smolders as we slip and slide through rivers of mud at the night. The smoke from the filth and the dust in the air and all the coke a cola and McDonalds littering the grassy fields that stretch on for miles and miles. The way the moon shines through the leaves in the autumn air and pierces the thick smog and branches spilling the luz across our faces and illuminating our paths. As we wonder, the silhouettes of the chorros and borachos like aimless shadows to our sides come and go, some faster, some slower. They buy lot´s of alcohol, to ease the pain, to find a light in the darkness that isn´t fake. Something, anything, to numb the reality of circumstance. But the sun rises again, and the nomads return home with hangovers and raw mouths from too much mate and cigarettes. Looking for something to hope for, to break the cruel cycle of the real world. A world without walls.

There is sadness so profound, that only on the still nights, just between the rustled and falling autumn leaves, can be heard and seen. There is an emptiness here that gapes open like the unhinged jaws of a rattlesnake, unnatural, encompassing. There is a pain here that nobody talks about. Splitting hairs between river and boca, and the Fútbol match of the year. Talking about the Simpsons and MTV.

We walk these streets, as angels of light. Stark white shirts glowing in the darkness. Radiant, and striking against the destroyed walls of the villa. We carry a message of hope, the only hope many of these people have. Hope that Moroni described in Ether as "a better world." A well of water that if these people draw from they will never thirst again. This drive of humanity to find happiness, this yearning in the emptiness in the darkness, will never be satisfied by material means. There is only one hope these people have.

I have seen this message start to change the lives of many. As we knock on the doors, a light comes into these barren shacks, a warmth that hasn´t been felt before, a craving of a starving soul that is at least partially satisfied. And while this world may sometimes seem like a dark and terrible place, it is never too distraught to open its proverbial doors, and let the light in again. Our circumstances are only as terrible as we make them. The only hope for the world may just be our only hope as well. And the brave young men walking the spiritual villa of this world can´t fight this battle alone. And we aren´t.

This week we were privileged enough to find many investigators. The man who we found in the wheelchair has had three return appointments now. He is progressing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, neither Elder Gibbs nor I have been able to understand his name both times when he has told us. So he remains the man in the wheelchair. He had an accident some years back that has left him paralyzed, but he is starting to feel the spirit of the restored gospel. In a lesson with him and his four children, he told us about his life as a hard worker, about a depressing childhood without a father, and his goals to make a better life for his kids. This led him to work an unreasonable amount with multiple careers, basically working 24/7 until his accident in an auto collision. He expressed to us that he didn´t doubt God´s existence, but he just wanted to know why. Why did God let this happen to him? Why did life have to be so hard?

We started reading in 3 Nephi 11 and took turns reading about the Savior´s ministry to the Americas. When it was the father´s turn, he barely finished reading where Christ declares "I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world," when suddenly he paused profoundly, and began to weep. I couldn´t say for sure. Maybe it was the reflection of his own personal experience, or maybe it was the holy spirit, but something in what Christ declared to the Nephites thousands of years ago, reached deeply into this man´s being and made him feel loved again.

I think it´s a universal truth, that our understanding of the atonement is very limited. But on some small level, we can understand. Because we know what we have suffered, and we know that Christ suffered the same for us. Thus this man who had lived through so many hardships, tired, exhausted, beaten down by the proverbial storms of mortal existence, suddenly understood that his bitter cup had been drank a long time ago, and hope for the first time in a long time entered his home once more. That spirit of Christ illuminated that destroyed house so strong that so help me, the shadows were cast away with the doubts and fears, and there was nothing but pure and beautiful light present.

May we all remember in our times of darkness the words of the Savior Himself. "I am the light and the life of the world." May we remember the bitter cups in our own lives, and help the weaker drink the bitter cups of their own. That we may fill another declaration of Christ in different place. "Ye are the light of the world," and bring this beautiful spirit to places where, if we are diligent, shadows will never roam again. This light of the world, even the light of the only begotten of the father, Jesus Christ.

Rough Week

To be short, this last week was rough. A lot of failed plans, late days in the offices etc. It was still good, but frustrating nonetheless. We were working hard, but regardless, sometimes the chips fall the way you don´t want, and the plans go down the hole. It´s easy to get discouraged, but as I have more weeks in the mission, I realize that when you are working hard and trying to be obedient and success isn´t coming, it usually means the Lord is testing you. We had only found one on Sunday, and we were feeling down. I prayed to God to be able to have the inspiration to find someone to teach, and no sooner had I done so when I looked to the left and saw a man in a wheelchair who was timidly beckoning us to come over. We began talking, not sure if he was mentally handicapped, and he explained to us that he had tried to contact the missionaries many times before as they walked by, but no one had ever talked to him. We entered the house and found four of his other children, all of which were very intelligent and interested in the message. Very humble and teachable. Last night we had a fantastic follow up cita.

We have had similar finding experiences the past two nights. I know the Lord is blessing us to be able to find those who need this message. After the trials the blessings always come. It´s true.

I love this work. I love seeing the way that this message can change people. Right now in this area, a lot of the investigators are relatively new, as a result, I´ll be able to see a lot of change. There are a few that are progressing wonderfully, but I have no time to inform you.

You may just note this as the most disappointing email week in the mission, but next week I´ll make up for it. Promise. Right now I´ve got to literally run out the door and start preaching the gospel. It´s so exciting! I love being a missionary.

Abrir la Fecha

Office life runs like clockwork. Essentially it turns into a big blur. A fantastic blur. My head as we speak is spinning round in circles. The days go a lot faster when the long wandering of the streets in the morning is replaced with the demanding secretary schedule. Demanding in the sense of organization. The actual workload of the offices isn´t terrible, and the best part, almost everything can wait until tomorrow. If we get too busy, or if I have to go out and work, I can do it.

The hard part of the office is keeping the mind in the work. It´s not always easy being in a nice air conditioned room surrounded by North Americans. In that respect, I´m jealous of the missionaries out wandering through the muddy streets of the villas in the rain. Don´t get me wrong, I´m still doing missionary work, just after 4 or 5 in the afternoon. It´s a lot easier to leave with the spirit when we can get directly out of our personal and comp study and hit the streets. That isn´t always the case here, when I usually have to jump from my odd ball tasks here ranging from ordering plane tickets to entering information in the mission database, directly into a lesson. I´m sure Elder Ockey can sympathize with that.

But time is moving so much faster. The last transfer moved drudgingly slow. Now life in Adrogué has jumped in the fast lane. It really is a different mission here. The consolation comes when I realize that the Lord has called me to be here. I´ve found in the mission, and even further in life, that it´s almost easier to accept the big and hard assignments. My glamorized cinematically inspired aspirations want President to come to me and tell me something like "Elder I´m going to send you to an area where man eating crocodiles the size of airliners wander the streets and where missionaries have never set foot before, and I need Elders that can work a miracle." It´s the kind of call that appeals to the pride. I´ve found, and seen, and now can witness, sometimes it´s hard to accept the smaller calls. The calls sometimes perceived as easier or less important. Of course we all KNOW that these positions are necessary and that we should "stand where we are and lift,” but even still, when the call comes, I´m sure it takes every bit as much faith to accept and magnify the lesser role. "I´ll go where you want me to go" has no conditionals.

Outside of the offices we´ve seen enormous success. We have a new key indicator called "Abrir la fecha," or translated "Open the date" referring to setting baptismal dates. That means that we need to extend the baptismal invitation at every opportunity we have. Just yesterday we had two appointments where we almost got the commitment. One of those was with an investigator that has been struggling lately, Victor.

Victor is divorced and lives with his mom and two daughters. His long black hair is testimony to his shady past, and at first glance of his darkened eyes you know he´s seen too much. We decided to teach him the basic message of the restoration and extend a baptismal invitation. The majority of our prior appointments had winded up with him wallowing in self pity. As we taught about the first vision there was such a special spirit, and you could see his countenance change. When we extended the invitation to be baptized he still had his doubts, but told us he wanted to start over. I know this message has the potential to change lives.

Other than that the work has been progressing wonderfully. We have been able to find a new family and also find a few bible obsessed evangelists. That is pretty common here. The hardest points to teach are the fact that

1. You have to do something more than merely confess the name of Christ to receive exaltation. and

2. The bible is not the only word of God.

Anyways, I love doing missionary work. I love where I am right now with my comp. I know the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us, and if we go where He wants us to go, wherever that may be; we may just find he has more in store for us than we had in store for ourselves. This work is true. God lives and loves us.

Life in the Office

Life in the offices is moving at a different pace. It´s strange how much faster time flies here. There´s always so much to do. I realize that the secretary is a lot of entering information, and busy work, but there´s a strange part of my mind that it appeals to. I´m not sure why. Just yesterday we got the project of getting an updated list of all the missionaries and their pictures together for the new mission president. It turned into a big puzzle to find a way to just get the missionaries that were currently in the field and not the ones in the past. But using a bit of creativity we were able to solve it. It kind of scares me how much I enjoy doing the mundane office work. I know it doesn´t exactly compare to being chased by dogs and Argentine robbers out on the streets, but regardless of my sensationalized missionary aspirations, I´ve managed to adjust to the world of the office.

So, even though it is difficult at times, it´s not as boring as I thought. I like having tasks that I can solve and figure out with a little thought and a few shots of trial and error on the computer. It´s a stark change from the complex, life changing problems of investigators. Sometimes I wish that we could solve investigators doubts like I solve problems in the computer data base. Unfortunately, the problems of life aren´t that simple.

I think it was Mom who told me that the information side of things would be easy to learn on the other side of the veil. It´s the attributes of Christ that are hard to develop. The ability to forgive, to love, to have hope and be humble. Those are truly the quests of a lifetime.

The work here in Adrogué has been very rewarding this week. Even though a lot of our time gets eaten up by our office responsibilities, we see the hand of the Lord guiding us to the elect so as to maximize our efficiency. I´ve had some wonderful experiences with finding people to teach.

Saturday morning, Elder Gibb´s and I went out to wait for a member to leave with us. We found out upon leaving the apartment that he would be about five minutes late, but we decided to leave anyway to do contacts. Our first one barely opened the door and didn´t want to leave her house. She gave us a few typical Argentine excuses and then hid herself back inside telling us to put the pamphlet we were offering in the mailbox. I reached behind the gate to put it in, but if fell to the other side. She wasn´t very promising, and I didn´t bother to leave another one so as not to waste materials.

As we continued contacting, we managed to find a man named Erik. I explained to him that that was my middle name and we began to talk a bit. He was making breakfast at the time, but told us to come back in an hour. We did so after our appointments had failed with Jorge (the member who was accompanying us.)To our surprise, he let us right in the house.

Him, his wife and two kids began listening intently, but it didn´t take long to realize there was more to Erik that met the eye. He knew much more about the bible than he initially let on, and proceeded to try and bash with us. It was intimidating at first, but we managed to bare a lot of testimony. We thought it was interesting how he couldn´t actually assert that his church was the correct one, only attempt to disprove ours. There wasn´t any contention, rather a doctrinal discussion to take out his doubts. He sincerely did want to get acquainted with the Church´s teachings regardless of his skepticism.

The other finding experience came on Sunday morning. Elder Gibbs and I wanted to get some extra work in to make up for the lack of opportunity during the week. Instead of going to priesthood session we went out to find. The prior week we had been walking in the street only to find a woman who was trying to move a pile of dirt by herself. We offered to help her and proceeded to do so. It was funny to see us out doing yard work in our white shirts and ties, definitely a good photo opportunity. Anyways, her husband finally showed up, and laughed upon seeing the Mormon slaves doing his yard work for him. He couldn´t figure out if it was some sort of civil punishment, or if the church was paying us. We explained a little about the teachings of Christ and gave them a pamphlet. Unfortunately we were late for an appointment and set up something for the following week.

Ok, so that was the morning of priesthood meeting. We went to their house and they let us right in, inviting their two daughters to join. It´s pretty rare to teach an entire family together. What happened was one of my favorite lessons to this day in the mission. We began teaching about prophets and asked them about their beliefs. They informed us that they were very religious, but didn´t profess a denomination. That they had always looked for truth, but didn´t know where to find it. (Yes, they used those words.) We taught about apostasy and then about the Joseph Smith story. It was a very powerful moment, reciting the first vision with them. It was almost as if a light turned on and illuminated their faces. The spirit was so strong. At the end of the lesson we all knelt in prayer to know if the things we had taught were true. The husband, Gustavo offered it. I had the distinct feeling right there that that whole reason I was there in Argentina. Not just to baptize people, but families. The message is so much more powerful when the whole family is there.

It was one of those cookie cutter MTC propaganda video lessons. I didn´t think they really existed, but now I have a testimony of that as well.

The other day we passed by the woman who we had contacted. The one whose pamphlet fell on the ground and I thought didn´t amount to anything. When we passed by at the assigned hour, she came out before we could ring the bell. She informed us that she had been waiting for us, that she had read the pamphlet we had left and wanted to know "not just out of curiosity, but out of sincere desire" if it was true. Unfortunately she was expecting company from her brother from Europe, but promised us that she would be in Church on Sunday and wanted to meet with us again. I didn´t think she was sincere, but every once in a while if we´re diligent, we find the elect, some times in the least expected places.

I have no more time, but I want you all to know I know this Church is true. This message changes people. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testimony of the restored church. It came forth by a true prophet chosen by God.

Good Hard Work

The last transfer was rough. As most of you figured out. I´ll spare you the details for now, but don´t worry. Everything is recorded in my journal and you´re more than welcome to read all about the Elder Sanchez story in just over a year. But to be brief....

Most of the times the answers to our prayers come in the form of strength or comfort. But other times the answer is very fast and very physical and real. With that in mind, my prayers respecting my predicament with Elder Sanchez were answered. And Wednesday morning the AP´s showed up at my pension to take Elder Sanchez on an emergency transfer out to the coast. Dolores. In the middle of nowhere. There are actually three AP´s in the mission right now as one was going home this transfer. The other was in training. As a result, I got to spend the weekend working with Elder Jones, the new assistant.

We walked out of the house that day and found 5 new investigators right off the bat. Success like that followed us for the remainder of the weekend. It was beautiful to be working again and working hard. I had almost forgotten how good it feels to be working constantly. There really is no other substitute in missionary work for good hard work. I think that´s a quote.

Anyways, Friday morning I got to accompany Elder Jones to the mission home where President has a special breakfast where he unveils the transfers to the office Elders and the Assistants. It was quite the privilege for the normal missionary. But upon seeing my transfer, I realized why the invite had been extended. I had been transferred to the offices to be comps with my district leader Elder Gibbs.

The best way to describe the feeling of being around so many kind people that loved me looking down a transfer with a district leader who I already admired was most synonymous with the movie Matilda, when the main character finally is allowed to leave her cruel step parents to live with her favorite teacher. I´ve gained a strong testimony of the law of compensation. The Lord gives us trials, but never more than we can bear, and after, we will receive the blessings. God never forgets His children.

Moving to the offices was a big change. To explain my duty a bit, I´m training to be the new secretary of the Mission. It involves making sure that the new missionaries that are coming are updated in the mission data base, as well as the new transfers. Also making sure flights are requested for the missionaries going home. Really a wide variety of duties ranging from sending letters to the families of missionaries who just received their call to come to the mission, to helping missionaries at the registro civil, getting their documents in order to legally be in Argentina. The majority of the responsibilities have just gone over my head because there are so many.

Sister Fitch, my trainer, is going home in 2 months, which is why I’m being trained. When she goes home I´ll be training the new sister that arrives. That means I´m going to be in the offices for at least 3-4 transfers. Which turns into 4-6 months.

We usually are able to get out and work at around 4 or 5, but this week with transfers has been crazy, and with zone conferences next week it´s not looking much better. I´ve found it interesting how much my work at Postnet the summer before the mission has helped me here. I didn´t realize then, but I can see clearly now that the Lord was preparing me a long time to fill this position. Many things I do are similar to the things I did in that job.

My companion Elder Gibbs is from Newbury Park California. That might sound familiar to a few of you because it´s pretty close to where Paul Westover lives. As a matter of fact, he was born in Camarillo. Shout out to Elder Westover. He has 15 brothers and sisters, yes, all from the same parents. A very hard and driven worker, but also a kind and easy to get along with companion, Elder Gibbs has already helped me in many ways adjusting to the new office lifestyle.

Our area in Adrogué in the offices is the center of the BAS mission. Very close to where I was in Burzaco. The AP´s have completely taken over the work in my old area, and I´m working with Elder Gibbs in Adrogué B. Elder Pepito is taking the role of the financiaro and essentially is doing the same thing I am. Getting ready to train the new one that´s coming in June.

Anyways, in the midst of all the confusion and changes, I ended up with the AP´s apartment. Which means I´ve moved from my beautiful house in Burzaco, disputably the nicest residence in the mission, to the stunning living quarters of the assistants, indisputably the best pension in the mission. I enjoy a new luxury now in the form of air conditioning. (Yes it´s still pretty hot here) Unheard of for a missionary residence. And a shower that actually has water pressure. Reminiscent of the legendary "Back left" in the MTC.

So life is pretty much a basket of peaches here in Buenos Aires. A comp who loves to work. A job I love in the offices. And the many other blessings that have attended to me every day. I thank you all for your prayers in my behalf. They have been answered in a very real way.

1 year ago today I was opening my mission call in the Kimball hall lobby. Exactly a year since this crazy Argentine adventure started. I still remember how I felt that day. I was so nervous, so uncertain about the future. When I read Buenos Aires Argentina, something inside me stirred, almost familiar. Like I had heard that before. The best way to describe it would be trying on the shoe that finally fits. Excuse the cliché. Now a year later, I´m a lot more acquainted with what it actually means to serve a mission. I love this work so much. I honestly can´t see myself doing anything else. The longer I´m in the mission, the longer I realize that I never want to leave. It´s startling to realize I've been away from home for so long. And my time here is starting to look very short as the year mark approaches.

Photo Post

Stephen didn't send any captions with these photos. However, I think they are in chronological order. Enjoy!